Dogs can be trained to live with humans in mutual comfort. Many dogs are trained to provide particular services, e.g., to sniff out drugs or cadavers, to track, to rescue people in distress, to guide the blind, etc. More often, dogs are owned as pets and provide both companionship and safety. In this latter role, they will typically share their owner's abode and know from an early age that doors can be opened to enable exit and entry. To get through a hinged door, dogs will typically try to push against the door with their snouts if the door is one that opens outward and away from them or will paw the door to try to pull it towards them if it is one that opens inward. This latter practice, which is the result of instinct rather than training, generally results in the door getting scratched and scarred over time. If the door in question is a screen door the damage may be serious enough to defeat the very purpose of the door, i.e., to keep out insects. It is also frustrating and fruitless for the dog—and may lead to undesirable barking.
There is clearly an unmet need for a safe, simple, affordable and easily installed apparatus and a method that will enable a reasonably intelligent dog, with a little training, to operate a hinged door that opens inward or outward—especially one that is spring-biased to be in a closed position and may even have a simple latch to hold it closed. The present invention addresses this need for the dog when it wants to get through the door for it's own purposes. Perhaps more importantly for a weak, injured or handicapped person, It also enables a trained dog to open the door at that person's command.